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Can Inter-Industry Wage Differentials Justify Strategic Trade Policy?

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Lawrence F. Katz
Lawrence H. Summers

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Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between labor market imperfections and trade policies. The available evidence suggests that pervasive industry wage differentials of up to 20 percent remain even after controlling for differences in observed measures of workers' skill and the effects of unions. Theoretical analysis indicates that given non-competitive wage differentials of this magnitude policies directed at encouraging employment in high-wage sectors could significantly enhance allocative efficiency. For the United States and other developed countries, such policies are more likely to involve export promotion than import substitution. Increased international trade flows (at least through 1984) have been associated with increased employment in high-wage U.S. manufacturing industries relative to low-wage U.S. manufacturing industries.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 2739.

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Date of creation: Nov 1989
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Publication status: published as NOTE: WP2739 is also the basis for R1261, "Industry Rents: Evidence and Implications." From Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Microeconomics 1989, pp. 209-275, (1989). "Can Interindustry Wage Differentials Justify Strategic Trade Policy?" From Trade Policies for International Competitiveness, edited by Robert C. Feenstra, pp. 85-116. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.
Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2739

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Sah, Raaj Kumar & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 1985. "The social cost of labor and project evaluation: A general approach," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 135-163, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Shapiro, Carl & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1984. "Equilibrium Unemployment as a Worker Discipline Device," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(3), pages 433-44, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Lawrence F. Katz, 1986. "Efficiency Wage Theories: A Partial Evaluation," NBER Working Papers 1906, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1987. "The Causes and Consequences of the Dependence of Quality on Price," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 1-48, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. William T. Dickens & Lawrence F. Katz, 1987. "Inter-Industry Wage Differences and Theories of Wage Determination," NBER Working Papers 2271, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Jeremy I. Bulow & Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "A Theory of Dual Labor Markets with Application to Industrial Policy, Discrimination and Keynesian Unemployment," NBER Working Papers 1666, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. S. Lael Brainard, 1991. "Protecting Losers: Optimal Diversification, Insurance, and Trade Policy," NBER Working Papers 3773, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Robert C. Feenstra, 1995. "Estimating the Effects of Trade Policy," NBER Working Papers 5051, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Tomas Holub & Martin Cihak, 2003. "Price Convergence: What Can the Balassa-Samuelson Model Tell Us?," Working Papers 2003/08, Czech National Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  4. Xenia Matschke, 2006. "Do Labor Market Imperfections Increase Trade Protection? A Theoretical Investigation," Working papers 2006-12, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2007. [Downloadable!]
  5. Xenia Matschke, 2004. "Labor Market Rigidities and the Political Economy of Trade Protection," Santa Cruz Center for International Economics, Working Paper Series 1019, Center for International Economics, UC Santa Cruz. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  6. Kala Krishna & Kathleen Hogan & Phillip Swagel, 1989. "The Non-Optimality of Optimal Trade Policy: The U.S. Automobile Indust ry Revisited, 1979-1985," NBER Working Papers 3118, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Harry P. Bowen & Leo Sveikauskas, 1989. "Judging Factor Abundance," NBER Working Papers 3059, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Ellingsen, Tore & Rosen, Åsa, 1994. "Skill or Luck? Search Frictions and Wage Differentials," Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 1, Stockholm School of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  9. Minsik Choi, 2001. "Threat Effect of Foreign Direct Investment on Labor Union Wage Premium," Working Papers wp27, Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts at Amherst. [Downloadable!]
  10. Mary E. Lovely & J. David Richardson, 1998. "Trade Flows and Wage Premiums: Does Who or What Matter?," NBER Working Papers 6668, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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